What’s the story with Wednesday’s name?

I have been nerding out about names a lot lately. There are so many stories and so much fun, hidden meaning behind names in terms of history, literature, and folklore.

Take Wednesday Addams for example. I’ve been absolutely inhaling Netflix’s record-breaking new show over the last few days. And since today is Wednesday, I thought it’d be fun to see what I could find about the story behind this delightfully deadpan heroine’s name.

Turns out Wednesday Addams didn’t even have a name in the beginning.

She was created by Charles Addams, a cartoonist for The New Yorker, and made her debut alongside the rest of her family in 1938. The family adopted the creator's last name, but it wasn’t until 1964 when Charles was told they were being adapted to television that he’d finally give the members of his little family first names.

Charles had names for all of the characters, but he was stumped with hers. Then he ran into his friend, the poet Joan Blake, at a dinner party. She suggested the name “Wednesday,” because of the line “Wednesday’s child is full of woe,” from “Monday’s Child,” a poem about children born on different days of the week that was first published in A.E. Bray’s Traditions of Devonshire in 1838.

For those who are curious, here it is:

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace.

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go.

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living.

And the child born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.

For years, it was assumed that Wednesday was named Wednesday because she was born on a Wednesday. In the first episode of the Netflix series, it’s revealed that Wednesday was actually born on Friday the 13th.

And, yes, they even confirmed that she was indeed named after a poem. A poem that predicted her morose demeanor 100 years before her character first graced the page.